It’s that time of year again – the AHA is once again sponsoring a Big Brew Day. We will be participating as a club by brewing at 3 Stars Brewing, who have graciously offered to sponsor us for this event. Their homebrew shop will be open, so you can pick up the ingredients for your next batch while you hang out with fellow club members and revel in all that is beer.

We will be brewing the Columbus Pale Ale recipe detailed on the AHA website, getting started at 11:00 AM. Come by and show your love for DCHB, brewing, and 3 Stars. The beer will be served at a future DCHB meeting or event.

This is the second year the competition will be sanctioned by the Beer Judge Certification Program, meaning you’ll get great feedback from certified judges and be eligible for fantastic prizes. (Here’s more info about what being a BJCP-sanctioned competition means.)

Why Should I Enter?
You’ll get feedback about your beer from judges certified by BJCP, and you can use that information to improve your brewing skills. If you win, you can get a sweet ribbon to show off how awesome you are — plus some great prizes from breweries and local beer establishments.

How Do I Enter?
Registration opens on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015, at 7 a.m. EST at http://www.dchbcompetition.com. Register your entries there. The entry fee is $8 for your first entry and $6 for your second (with a limit of two entries per person). Once you register, you can print off entry information to attach to your bottles. Then, drop off the bottles at 3 Stars Homebrew Shop in D.C. or My Local Homebrew Shop in Falls Church, Va. All entries must be dropped off by 6 p.m. EST on Friday, March 13.

How Can I Get Involved Otherwise?
We’re looking for stewards and BJCP-certified judges to help on judging day (Saturday, March 21). If you’re interested in doing either, please register at http://www.dchbcompetition.com/ starting on Thursday, Jan. 15.

Another DC Homebrewers Oktoberfest meeting has come and gone. As always, a great time was had by all. Our hosts – Martin and Kristan Doczkat – provided the perfect space for us to enjoy all the great beer and great food.

Speaking of food – they also provided 6 chickens slow roasted over charcoal and a couple of smoked pork butts. Plenty of food was provided by the Food Committee and others, including pretzels, rouladen, potato pancakes, pickled red cabbage, brats, and more. We will try to better next time to accommodate the vegetarians in the group, but for those who imbibe in the meats, no one should have been hungry. Continue reading →

Study group members listen to Jamie Langlie explain the scoring process.

So begins the H.O.P.S. BJCP study session! First, let’s learn about evaluating beers, the BJCP judging process, and the certification exam. To guide your own discussion on these topics, read How to Judge Beer for a quick primer on what’s involved. Also reference chapters I – III in the BJCP Exam Study Guide.

If you’re enthusiastic about beer and homebrewing, becoming a certified beer judge is a valuable next step to expand your knowledge, appreciation, and brewing ability. The American Homebrewers Association’s Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) is designed to help aspiring judges develop the sensory awareness and knowledge of beer styles, history, and brewing science necessary to be effective judges (and better brewers).

Preparing for the BJCP exam requires quite of bit of study (and drinking), though. This summer, the women of H.O.P.S. (Homebrew Outreach and Participation Sisterhood, a sub-committee of DC Homebrewers) are conducting a BJCP study group. Although the group is already at capacity, we’d like to share our notes and beer lists with you so you can study along at home.

It seems like just a few weeks ago we had our May Meeting. Mark Nicui won the UK Beer Styles club-only competition, with Omar 2nd and Erich 3rd.

Our June meeting will be on the 16th (the location has been sent via email). There is no club-only competition, but we will have a German malt SMaSH beer sampling. The theme of the meeting is “Belgian Beers”, so bring your singles, dubbels, tripels, quads, saisons, or whatever else you have laying around the house.

Since this will be at a commercial establishment, please do not bring any craft beer our outside food. If you’d like to review meeting protocol, please click here.

It’s almost time for our May meeting! Tuesday May 20th we will be meeting at the home of Patrick Coonan, who lives in the U Street/Columbia Heights area. The exact address has been sent via email.

The theme for this month’s meeting is “UK Styles”, so bring your milds, your Scottish ales, your ESBs… Or just bring whatever you have – it’s all good.

We will be doing a club-only competition of UK style beers. If you’d like to enter, please contact the Competition committee at Competitions@DCHomebrewers.com

Since we will not be at a commercial establishment, you are also free to bring craft beer and/or food. Please contact the food committee at Food@DCHomebrewers.com to coordinate what you will be bringing.

Our 4th annual Sam Adams / DC Homebrewers homebrew contest is almost upon us! In previous years, the winners have gone to GABF, Oktoberfest, and the Sam Adams brewery in Boston. This year, the winner will be going to the Yakima Valley in Washington for the hop harvest. It must smell amazing.

We had the preliminary judging Tuesday night, and there are 15 winners moving forward to the final round, which is THIS SATURDAY (April 26th), starting at noon at City Tap House near Chinatown (http://www.citytaphousedc.com/). There will be a celebrity panel of judges picking the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes. There will also be a “crowd favorite” prize picked by the attendees, so come taste some wonderful beers and pick your favorite. Winners and awards will be presented at 4:00.

Most people who came to the meeting at Right Proper last night had a chance to taste the experimental comparison beers I brought. I learned a lot by brewing and tasting them, and I hope everyone else did as well. When we brew even simple batches, there are so many variables that it’s hard to know what causes a certain flavor in beer. The idea is simple: isolate one variable and alter it in a meaningful way.

The base beer was simple, an American Blonde ale clocking in at about 3.5%-4% ABV (depending on the yeast). It was an all grain batch made of 80% 2-row and 20% wheat, and mashed in at 130°F with rests at 145°F and 155°F. I used Columbus hops for a 60 min bittering addition targeting 12 IBUs. Sixty minute boil. Fairly bland.

I then cooled the wort to 65°F, divided it into 5 one gallon glass containers and pitched 5 different yeasts from the Fermentis dry yeast lineup: Continue reading →

DCHB decided to have this year’s Cherry Blossom Competition sanctioned by the BJCP for a few reasons, all to ensure that we make this year’s competition, and those in the future, the best ever.

The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) certifies and ranks beer judges through an examination and monitoring process. By judging in sanctioned homebrew competitions, folks who earn the BJCP credential earn points that contribute to their rank. So, by registering this year’s CBC with the BJCP, we’re able to attract qualified beer judges to evaluate and score the entries. This makes the process fairer, especially since we have some pretty sweet prizes at stake.

Speaking of prizes, by making this competition BJCP-sanctioned, we’ve been able to attract better prize donors than in the past. And by the way, you can’t win if you don’t enter!

We’ll also be using the BJCP Style Guidelines to classify entries and organize prize categories. This gives the competition a well-defined structure and ensures that the beers are judged objectively against the guidelines, not somebody’s personal preferences. Check out the guidelines before entering your beer to make sure you are selecting the most appropriate category. If you’re not sure, have a friend try your homebrew and help you classify it.

Finally, and most importantly, you’ll receive detailed feedback from judges explaining why they scored your beer the way they did. Your scoresheets will include a breakdown of the point allocation and total score assigned to your beer, the judges’ descriptions of your beer’s aroma, appearance, flavor, and mouthfeel, and suggestions for correcting any flaws they may have perceived. That’s feedback you can use to brew better beer.

The CBC is limited to 240 entries, so get brewing! We want DC Homebrewers to OWN this competition.